Tampa, FL-- A Hillsborough County school bus driver, 40-year-old Stephanie Wilkerson, was arrested Thursday for literally -- not figuratively -- kicking an 8-year-old girl off of the school bus.

According to cops, Wilkerson was dropping off special needs children at Tampa Bay Boulevard Elementary, at the intersection of Tampa Bay Blvd. and MacDill.

When she told an 8-year-old child with autism to wait her turn to exit the bus, the child slapped her.

When it was the child's turn to get off the bus, she refused, stopping in the stairwell. That's when cops say Wilkerson pushed the child off the bus with her foot, causing her to fall and fracture her ankle.

Wilkerson was later arrested at the bus yard.

She's been driving a Hillsborough school bus since 2008, and has a clean record, but the school board immediately suspended her driving privileges.